Certain types of apparatus, such as a mobile radio telephone apparatus, used in a mobile vehicle, such as an automobile, is subject to a high level of vibration. Thus, unlike stationary telephone receivers wherein the handset is essentially designed to rest on a base station by the force of gravity, the handset of a telephone apparatus in a mobile vehicle must be coupled to the base securely so that the handset stays in its position as the vehicle moves and vibrates the handset.
In the past, significant effort has been directed to designing a mechanism for releasably securing the handset to the base. Typically, such a mechanism includes a lever mechanism for permitting the operator to position the handset onto the base and a latch mechanism to hold the handset on to the base. The prior art apparatus includes manually operable release mechanism for releasing the latch mechanism for releasing the handset.
Notwithstanding the substantial resources that have been committed to developing suitable latching and releasing mechanisms, none has been found very satisfactory. They tend to be either very complex or simple but not very reliable when subjected to a high degree of vibrating environment. They also tend to be rather difficult to operate in a mobile environment when the apparatus is used in a mobile vehicle where the driver of the automobile must at the same time pay attention to the driving of the automobile.